You Want Candidates Who Will Vote With Republicans Against The DREAMers? Vote For New Dems And Blue Dogs

Breitbart appears frightened that Señor Trumpanzee could abandon Stephen's racism and xenophobia for something more pragmatic. They were calling him "Amnesty Don" Thursday morning (above) but appear to have changed the headline slightly by afternoon (below). But they're still whining about the DREAMers, as you can see. This is what one of the Breitbart Nazis had to say "President Trump told mainstream media reporters on Wednesday that he was open to breaking his immigration commitment by giving a pathway to U.S. citizenship to nearly 800,000 illegal aliens shielded from deportation by the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In statements outside the White House, Trump told the Associated Press (AP) that he would be open to giving U.S. citizenship to DACA illegal aliens, saying 'It’s going to happen.'" They fumed over AP's report that Señor Trumpanzee said "he’s open to a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the country as children and are now here illegally. Trump told reporters, 'We’re going to morph into it. It’s going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years.' Trump was talking about the young immigrants who had been protected from deportation and given the right to work legally in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program."

DREAMers weren't overjoyed by Trump's announcement, basically because the Stephen Miller framework he got Trump to put on the table is so onerous. Greisa Martinez Rosas, Advocacy Director for United We Dream and potential beneficiary of the Dream Act, said:

“Let’s call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note. Trump and Stephen Miller killed DACA and created the crisis that immigrant youth are facing. They have taken immigrant youth hostage, pitting us against our own parents, Black immigrants and our communities in exchange for our dignity.”

“To Miller and Trump’s white supremacist proposal, immigrant youth say: No.

“With each passing day, immigrant youth are losing their livelihoods and are at risk of deportation. People like Eric, Yuridia, and Damaris could soon face the same fate as Luis, who was kicked in the head by deportation agents and confined in a detention camp.

“But our fear, our pain, and our lives must not be used to shackle our parents and ban those seeking refuge; we must not be used to tear apart the moral fabric of this country. For months, we have organized and mobilized the country to demand a common sense solution that delivers protection without harming others: the Dream Act.”

“So let us be clear: any politician who backs up this ransom note is enabling Trump and Miller’s white supremacist agenda.

“Members of Congress of conscience must make the moral choice to reject this white supremacist proposal and pass legislation that protects us without harming others. Dream Act now.”

Earlier this week the whole Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- the Blue Dogs and New Dems-- abandoned the DREAMers and voted with the Republicans. In case you're wondering, the New Dems have endorsed 23 candidates so far this cycle:

• Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)
• Greg Stanton (AZ)
• Dave Min (CA)
• Harley Rouda (CA)
• Hans Keirstead (CA)
• Lauren Baer (FL)
• Jason Crow (CO)
• Paul Davis (KS)
• Elissa Slotkin (MI)
• Angie Craig (MN)
• Dean Phillips (MN)
• Dan McCready (NC)
• Brad Ashford (NE)
• Mikie Sherrill (NJ)
• Max Rose (NY)
• Anthony Brindisi (NY)
• Susie Lee (NV)
• Chrissie Houlahan (PA)
• Jana Lynne Sanchez (TX)
• Jay Hulings (TX)
• Ben McAdams (UT)
• RD Huffstetler (VA)
• Dan Kohl (WI)

They didn't get a chance to vote but the organization they each sought and got an endorsement from sure did. If you help elect them, they will be on the wrong side of every vote in Congress that means anything. In the words of CREDO Political Director Murshed Zaheed, "Not surprisingly, a racist immigration fantasy masked as a proposal from a racist White House is a white supremacist’s wish list. It goes without saying that {President} Donald Trump’s Stephen Miller’s racist immigration proposal should be dead on arrival in Congress. The negotiators in Congress should work to enact a clean DREAM Act without a single compromise to Republicans’ nativist agenda. Time is up. Congress must pass the DREAM Act now."

Four candidates Blue America likes a lot Antoinette Sedillo Lopez in Albuquerque, Mary Matiela in Tucson, Nina Ahmad in Philly and Ricardo Franco, the progressive running for the Devin Nunes seat in the Central Valley, both shared their perspectives with us. Antoinette: "The Trump/Stephen Miller proposal is a repudiation of some of the most important principles that this country holds dear. I don't believe  that the American people will sell out our values and accept the militarization of our country’s borders with an enormous ICE presence acting to remove immigrants and, of course, sowing fear and discord in our communities. I don't believe that Americans are willing to pay for a $25 billion wall that is simply a hateful symbol and will not have any tangible positive effect on our country. Family unification has been a bedrock principle of immigration law because families are foundational to building our society; eliminating this policy would betray our values. Poll after poll shows that most Americans support DREAMers, young people who do not belong to any other country but ours, where they have grown up and continue to contribute. Anything less than a clean Dream Act betrays our values of inclusion and compassion.  This proposal is an embarrassment, and it should be rejected by all who are willing to stand up to this President’s divisive agenda. We all should stand strong against this hateful proposal."

Mary Matiela, the best of the candidates running to replace Martha McSally in Tucson: "No doubt, Dreamers have contributed to this country-- they are doctors, nurses, soldiers, builders, painters, etc. Dreamers are our colleagues, our neighbors, and our family-- we cannot, must not abandon them. Trump's plan, where the pathway to citizenship evolves over 15 years, is deceitful and cruel; we must reject it! Legislators must urgently work on a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, i.e., not by February 8."

The most recent Blue America endorsee, Nina Ahmad, came to the U.S. from Bangladesh and has made her life into a stunning success story that has been a big boon for our country and for Philadelphia. Yesterday she said that "Once again, we see President Trump using DREAMers as a bargaining chip rather than treating them as the human beings they are. The DREAM Act is a popular piece of legislation that should have been passed years ago. As an immigrant, I hope Democrats reject the premise that this is a compromise and focus on the humanity of immigrants and their families. We can do better than what Trump has proposed."

And Ricardo Franco, who's starting to get some real traction against Nunes: "From my years in business I know that you don't bargain or argue over something that has consensus or unanimous support. More than 85% of the country believes our DACA recipients should stay.  Only Trump and career politicians disconnected from the lives of their constituents would ever think bargaining over something like this is reasonable. I have sat in the homes of people who are threatened by the loss of DACA and shared their fear. Passing a clean DREAM act is a matter of life and death to many of our constituents. How ignorant must a legislator be to not understand this?  We can no longer tolerate any members of Congress that don't take this and other issues with the respect and seriousness that humanity commands."

And New York state's Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, said that since Trumpanzee "abruptly ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last September, DREAMers have been left in fear and uncertainty. Every day, an estimated 122 DACA recipients lose their protections from deportation, resulting in thousands of young people facing threat of separation from their families and friends since Trump’s devastating decision. Over 40,000 DREAMers are New Yorkers, and I’m keeping up the legal fight to protect them from this administration’s harmful and unlawful actions against them. But leaders in Washington, D.C. have the opportunity to solve this problem and prevent additional young people from losing their protections right now by passing the bipartisan DREAM Act. While I’m fighting in the courts... Each day that passes without a legislative, long-term solution for DREAMers leaves many to wonder if and when they’ll be forced back to a country they do not know, in many cases countries where their health and safety are at risk. President Trump promised to have 'heart' when it came to defending DREAMers, but so far he’s failed to deliver, instead choosing to blow up negotiations with Congressional leaders and hold DREAMers hostage while he demands billions of dollars in funding for his border wall... No matter what happens, I will continue to fight for DREAMers’ right to stay here in the country they call home."

Do All Democrats Back Net Neutrality? No, Many Are On The Corporate Gravy Train With The Republicans

This week, Rick Weiland, the populist Democrat running for open Senate seat in South Dakota, sent his supporters a statement called "The Lost Highway," and, of course, he was talking about the Internet. "Everybody," he began, "seems to think the so called net neutrality issue is incredibly complex. It isn't." Weiland isn't much loved by the Big Money interests or the Establishment shills from either party. When CREDO sent out a petition this week "about 20 turncoat Democrats who sold us out," there was no one remotely like Weiland on their list. "20 turncoat Democrats sold us out to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. Infuriatingly, they signed an industry-backed letter telling the FCC not to re-regulate broadband Internet as a public utility. If the FCC listens to these turncoat Democrats and fails to treat broadband as a utility, what we’ll end up with is nothing short of the corporate takeover of the Internet and an end to Net Neutrality. This is unacceptable."

This is their list of paid-off scoundrels. "These Democrats decided to stand with wealthy corporations rather than stand up for your interests:"

• Gene Green (D-TX)
• John Barrow (New Dem-GA)
• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)
• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)
• Bobby Rush (D-IL)
• Corrine Brown (D-FL)
• Joaquin Castro (New Dem-TX)
• Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
• Bill Owens (New Dem-NY)
• Loretta Sanchez (New Dem-CA)
• Albio Sires (D-NJ)
• Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV)
• Kurt Schrader (New Dem-OR)
• Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
• Marc Veasey (D-TX)
• Lacey Clay (D-MO)
• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• David Scott (New Dem-GA)

CREDO explains: "Net Neutrality says that Internet users, not ISPs, should be in control. It ensures that Internet service providers can't speed up, slow down, or block web content based on its source, ownership, or destination. Net Neutrality is important because the Internet is an essential service Americans rely on to conduct our most basic daily affairs, from applying for a job to finding a home, to running a small business. And our right to communicate freely and be heard lies at the heart of our ability to participate equally in our democracy."

And this is how Weiland put it:

Since its inception, the Internet has been a wide open public highway.

Just like our Interstate-highway system 50 years ago, this new public highway spawned an explosion of innovation and prosperity precisely because it was equally free and open to all.

Even as giant chunks of money and power were taking over our politics, and ever expanding portions of our economy, the net remained neutral and free. While big banks ossified, big insurance and pharmaceuticals made an overpriced fiasco of our health care system, and big government spied on us and wasted our money overseas, the net rolled on, spewing innovation and ideas and prosperity.

But the day when the big money highway robbers would turn their attention to the net couldn't be postponed forever. With their big money masks in place they have now stepped forward, political contribution guns blazing, and are trying to set up checkpoints at which ideas and innovation can be shaken down for their profit, and tossed off the net if they refuse to pony up.

This form of brazen highway robbery is the very opposite of complex. It has been practiced by the powerful against the less powerful since the dawn of time.

The forms may differ. A gunman behind a rock along the line of the Pony Express. A militant with a mask and an Uzi in Iraq, or in a Nigerian forest with little girls as hostages.

But the modus operandi has been the same forever. Use your power to make them pay you. Get rich without having to produce anything of value yourself because you have the gun and they do not.

About as subtle and complex as a Glock pointed at your head. That is what the Internet faces today. A Glock pointed at its head by big money.

I am running for the United States Senate because I believe it is the job of our government not to assist the guys with the Glock, but to stand up to them.

In this day where our Supreme Court gives the right of unlimited speech to dollars, and our politicians get elected by begging the guys with the Glocks for money to con an ever angrier, and  less attentive electorate, I may be nothing more than a modern day Don Quixote.

But I sure don’t think so. I think people are finally fed up, and ready to rise up in anger, to stop the brazen highway robbers from choking the internet highway.

…I support net neutrality, and a government that will fight for, not against, that neutrality.

And Blue America is backing Rick Weiland. You can contribute to his campaign here. He's one of only 3 Senate candidates we've endorsed this cycle and, predictably, the DSCC Executive Director, Guy Cecil, is blocking him from getting Democratic backing, even though he's been endorsed by 36 senators including Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Al Franken, Barbara Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Brian Schatz, Mazie Hirono, Ron Wyden, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jack Reed, Patrick Leahy, Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Tom Harkin and, of course, Bernie Sanders. How does Guy Cecil feel about Net Neutrality? How about the massive campaign contributions-- legalistic bribes-- he collects from the corporations who want to get rid of Net Neutrality. Yeah, yeah… I know. Republicans are worse than Democrats. Uh huh.

Clean Coal?

Yesterday, Obama's campaign made a rare misstep-- a stupid radio spot in favor of "clean coal" that attacks Romney for being pro-environmental. Listen to it; it's sickening. Our pals are CREDO were as disgusted as we were. Their petition asks Democrats and independents to "Tell the Obama campaign: Drop your cynical pro-coal ad... The people of Ohio know that fossil fuel pollution tends to punish most those who can least afford to move away from it," the group says "an ad suggesting that President Obama is more coal-loving than Romney isn't just cynical, it's misleading. From lung disease for generations of miners who have been left with no choice but to work in coal mines, to water pollution which increases cancer rates, to power plant pollution which causes everything from asthma to neurological damage. And of course the climate pollution from burning coal is an ominous and growing cloud over all of our futures."

Ironically, on the same day, across the board in northern West Virginia, that state's most populist candidate for federal office, Sue Thorn, had a letter published by the Post-Gazette

I cannot understand how U.S. Rep. David McKinley could criticize United Steelworkers president Leo Gerard and say he is disrespectful of coal miners ("Bad for Coal," July 29 letters), when Mr. McKinley consistently puts corporate profits before miners' lives.

On July 26, Mr. McKinley and other House lawmakers put workers at risk and voted for House Resolution 4078, a bill to freeze "significant federal regulation." This bill is a death sentence for miners. HR 4078 would block new federal rules to prevent combustible dust explosions like the Upper Big Branch disaster, which killed 29 miners in West Virginia in 2010. Mr. McKinley even voted against an amendment to exempt regulation of combustible dust from the bill.

HR 4078 would also prevent the Mine Safey and Health Administration from implementing a new rule to limit miners' exposure to coal dust and prevent black lung disease. In the last 40 years, black lung killed or helped kill 70,000 coal miners and rates have doubled in the last decade.

Mr. McKinley has also failed to support the Robert C. Byrd Mine and Workplace Safety act, comprehensive legislation meant to prevent mine disasters.

Mr. McKinley's criticisms of Mr. Gerard ring hollow coming from someone who puts coal company profits before coal miner safety. Maybe Mr. McKinley's comments are more reflective of the fact that his campaign started receiving funding from Massey Energy's Don Blankenship in 2010, shortly after the Upper Big Branch disaster and Mr. Blankenship's contributions exceeded Federal Election Committee rules. While Mr. McKinley's biggest funders are coal companies and he may be a friend of theirs, he's no friend of coal miners.

Obama's a lot better than McKinely... Sue's better than both of them. The DCCC is studiously ignoring her race, although it's one of the most winnable anywhere in the country. If she's going to win, it's because grassroots donors continue to reach deep and help her. You can do that here on our Blue America page

Sunday Classics: Does Verdi's Jago really believe he's evil because he was created by an evil God?

Curtain up! We like to start at -- or at least get back to -- the beginning. Since we're looking at the opening of Act II of Otello, here's the orchestral introduction again, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan, from their 1961 Decca Otello.

by Ken

I just said in the caption that we're hearing the orchestral inroduction to Act II of Verdi's Otello "again" because we already heard it in Friday night's preview, as part of the complete opening scene, through Jago's "Credo." As we've noted, Otello has no formal overture or even formal prelude, but all four acts have utterly astonishing orchestral introductions. The Act II introduction leads directly into the brief scene in which Jago draws the disgraced Cassio deeper into his net while pretending to show him how to get back into Otello's good graces. Clearly, the orchestral introduction speaks to us of Jago's honeyed persuasiveness, and of the devious mind underlying it. That devious mind is, approximately, our subject today.

In a moment we're going to hear the full opening scene again -- the orchestral introduction, Jago's seduction (more or less) of Cassio, and then the rage that erupts when he has a moment to himself.


We already saw a clip of Bryn singing the "Credo" Friday night, from back in 1996, and since I don't really like beating up on the clips, and that one was better than pretty much all the "Credo" video clips I sampled (the general level ranging from ghastly to hellacious), I gave it a pass. But if it struck you that he hadn't quite absorbed the music into his voice, I absolutely agree.

Now we're in 2010, and it's kind of distressing to hear that the voice seems shorn of most of its singing quality. (You'd like to hope it was just a bad night.). Perhaps more alarming, though, is the cartoonishness of the "interpretation." Yes, Bryn sort of gets that Jago is angry, but I'm not sure he really gets just how angry the man is, because he doesn't seem to have gotten beyond the childish notion that Jago really thinks he's evil because God is evil, and he by God shows us just how evil he is.

As I noted Friday, there has always been controversy concerning this one major change (as opposed to compression) made by librettist Arrigo Boito and composer Giuseppe Verdi in their operafication of Shakespeare's Othello: the addition of Jago's seemingly "explanatory" monologue, which begins, "I believe in a cruel God who created me in his image."


COULD JAGO POSSIBLY MEAN SOMETHING MORE WHEN
HE SAYS HE'S EVIL BECAUSE HE'S HUMAN? CLICK HERE

#

Sunday Classics preview: Verdi's Jago -- "I believe in a cruel God who created me in his image"

Bryn Terfel sings Jago's "Credo" with Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, on "Italian Night" at Berlin's Waldbühne, 1996.

JAGO [gazing after CASSIO]: Go then;
I see your end already.
Your evil genius drives you on,
and I am your evil genius.
And my drags me on, implacable God
in whom I believe.
[Moving away from the balcony, no longer looking at CASSIO, who disappears through the trees.]
I believe in a cruel God who has created me
in his image and whom, in hate, I call upon.
me like himself; cruel and vile he made me.
From some vile germ or base atom
was I born.
I am evil
because I am a man;
and I feel the primeval slime in me.
Yes! This is my creed!
I believe with a firm heart,
just as does the young widow in church,
that the evil I think and which from me proceeds
was decreed for me by fate.
I believe that the honest man is a mocking buffoon,
and in his face and in his heart,
everything in him is a lie:
tears, kisses, glances,
sacrifice and honor.
And I believe man to be
the sport of a wicked fate,
from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.
And after this derision comes Death.
And then? And then?
Death is nothingness.
Heaven is an old wives' tale.

-- translation by Gwyn Morris (with Andrew Porter)

by Ken

It's unquestionably true that the most conspicuous deviation from Shakespeare in Verdi and Boito's Otello is the monologue in which Jago announces, "I believe in a cruel god who created me in his likeness." This is widely commentated to be: (a) an attempted "explanation" of Jago's villainous behavior and (b) a regrettable "simplification" of the character. Of course it isn't either of those things, and that's going to be the subject of this week's Sunday Classics post.


TO HEAR JAGO'S "CREDO" IN CONTEXT, IN
BOTH ENGLISH AND ITALIAN, CLICK HERE

#

[11/27/2011] Does Verdi's Jago really believe he's evil because he was created by an evil God? (continued)

DON'T YOU THINK IT'S TIME WE HEARD
A DECENT PERFORMANCE OF THE "CREDO"?

Ernest Blanc (1923-2010)

Ernest Blanc, baritone; Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Georges Prêtre, cond. EMI, recorded September 1961 [audio link]


OKAY, I SAID WE WOULD HEAR THE WHOLE
OPENING SCENE OF ACT II, SO LET'S DO THAT

The recorded Jagos are, alas, a generally underwhelming lot, which makes the outstanding performance of Apollo Granforte (1886-1975) in the 1931-32 HMV set that much more valuable.

VERDI: Otello: Act II, Orchestral introduction; Jago, "Non ti crucciar" ("Do not fret") . . . "Vanne" ("Go then") . . . "Credo in un Dio crudel" ("I believe in a cruel God")

A ground-floor apartment in the castle. Through a window a large garden is seen. A balcony. JAGO on this side of the balcony, CASSIO on the garden side.

JAGO: Do not fret.
If you trust in me, you will soon enjoy again
the flighty favors of Mistress Bianca,
proud captain, with your hilt of gold
and figured baldric.
CASSIO: Do not flatter me . . .
JAGO: Attend to what I say.
You just know that Desdemona is
the leader of our leader,
he lives for her alone.
Beg that generous soul to intercede for you
and your pardon is sure.
CASSIO: But how shall I speak with her?
JAGO: 'Tis her custom to stroll in the shade
of those trees with my wife.
Wait for her there.
Now the way of salvation is open to you;
go then.
[CASSIO moves away. JAGO alone.]
JAGO [gazing after CASSIO]: Go then;
I see your end already.
Your evil genius drives you on,
and I am your evil genius.
And my drags me on, implacable God
in whom I believe.
[Moving away from the balcony, no longer looking at CASSIO, who disappears through the trees.]
I believe in a cruel God who has created me
in his image and whom, in hate, I call upon.
me like himself; cruel and vile he made me.
From some vile germ or base atom
was I born.
I am evil
because I am a man;
and I feel the primeval slime in me.
Yes! This is my creed!
I believe with a firm heart,
just as does the young widow in church,
that the evil I think and which from me proceeds
was decreed for me by fate.
I believe that the honest man is a mocking buffoon,
and in his face and in his heart,
everything in him is a lie:
tears, kisses, glances,
sacrifice and honor.
And I believe man to be
the sport of a wicked fate,
from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.
And after this derision comes Death.
And then? And then?
Death is nothingness.
Heaven is an old wives' tale.

-- translation by Gwyn Morris
(stage directions swiped from Andrew Porter)

Apollo Granforte (b), Jago; Piero Girardi (t), Cassio; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Carlo Sabajno, cond. HMV, recorded 1931-32 [audio link]
Gabriel Bacquier (b), Jago; Peter Dvorský (t), Cassio; Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca recorded September 1977 [audio link]


NOW WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO IS BREAK
THE "CREDO" DOWN INTO SECTIONS

We've actually got six pretty good performances here, and an interesting variety. We're going to hear them all in their entirety (and in fact a number of the singers do some of their best work in sections other than those I've assigned them, but hey, we needed coverage of the whole piece. I think we'll identify the performers when we hear their whole performances.

You'll note, by the way, that I've overlapped the sections a little to provide some sense of continuity. I originally expected that I would offer some pithy, possibly illuminating comments on each section. But the more time I've spent breaking breaking the "Credo" down, the less pithful I've felt. It's all there in the words and music -- that is, as long as performers don't turn it into cartoon words and music.

[A] "Vanne; la tua meta già vedo"

JAGO [gazing after CASSIO]: Go then;
I see your end already.
Your evil genius drives you on,
and I am your evil genius.
And my drags me on, implacable God
in whom I believe.
[Moving away from the balcony, no longer looking at CASSIO, who disappears through the trees.]

[audio link]

[B] "Credo in un Dio crudel, che m'ha creato simile a sè"

I believe in a cruel God who has created me
in his image and whom, in hate, I call upon.
me like himself; cruel and vile he made me.

[audio link]

[C] "Dalla viltà d'un germe"

From some vile germ or base atom
was I born.
I am evil
because I am a man;
and I feel the primeval slime in me.
Yes! This is my creed!

[audio link]

[D] "Credo con fermo cuor, siccome la vedovella al tempio"

[Yes! This is my creed!]
I believe with a firm heart,
just as does the young widow in church,
that the evil I think and which from me proceeds
was decreed for me by fate.

[audio link]

[E] "Credo che il giusto è un istrion buffardo"

I believe that the honest man is a mocking buffoon,
and in his face and in his heart,
everything in him is a lie:
tears, kisses, glances,
sacrifice and honor.
And I believe man to be
the sport of a wicked fate,
from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.

[audio link]

[F] "Vien dopo tanta irision la Morte"

[. . . from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.]
And after this derision comes Death.
And then? And then?
Death is nothingness.
Heaven is an old wives' tale.

[audio link]


BEFORE WE HEAR THE COMPLETE PERFORMANCES,
LET ME SUGGEST WHAT I THINK JAGO IS UP TO HERE

Rationalizing, self-justifying, self-deluding, intellectual obfuscating and tap-dancing. Smart-alecking a little, maybe.

Oh yes, and most obviously, but not unimportantly, venting. His inner self is so wholly closed off to everyone around him -- with the likely exception of his wife, Emilia (who's reduced to a really minor role in the opera, but we can still guess that she's familiar with both his dishonesty and his destructiveness) -- and so masterful at disguising his true feelings and intentions that at this crucial moment in his scheming it's hardly surprising that what comes out of him in this totally private moment is so intense, even violent.

But also dishonest. There's a tendency to think, but he's alone, speaking to himself, so why would he lie? For many of the same reason(s) we all lie to ourselves, and maybe some that are his own special province. See the partial list above.

I have keen memories of a moment from the last watchable season of MTV's Real World, ironically (or maybe not so ironically) the season in which the producers made the fateful turn from showing us how different people often are from the way we first perceive them to wallowing in alcohol and sexual titillation. It was a confessional moment from the very young, innocent-looking fellow from Boston who had (the viewer had come to realize) apparently intentionally been provoking behavior among some of his castmates which was horribly damaging both to themselves and to each other.

In that confessional moment he confessed to the camera that yes, he was lying and intentionally causing all that mayhem to his castmates and he was doing it because it gave him pleasure. For me, in an important sense this "explained" the fellow's behavior in a way that simply hadn't occurred to me. (Okay, I'd led a sheltered life.)

In reality, of course, it didn't "explain" anything about why it gave him pleasure to make people around him miserable, but it suggested where to begin rummaging around in his psyche. I should mention, for example, that the fellow was gay, which may matter not because of easily ascribable cause and effect but because of a likely link among behaviors that have to do with harshly imposed outsiderness and isolation from the "general population." (Remember, this was a lot of years ago, and those years have produced some then-unimaginable changes in the way we think about these things. I would guess, though, that this process of social isolating is far from extinct.)

And Boito, in the text for Jago's "Credo," has given us ample ground for speculation about what's going on inside.

For one thing, like that young Real World fellow, Jago is smart -- we might say scary-smart, both smarter than the people around him and smarter than they realize. For another thing, all that supposedly self-exculpatory stuff about his evil and primordial slimefulness is regurgitated more or less directly from this dear old nurturing Mother Church. He's done at least two things with the fundamental concept of "original sin," normally used by the Church to enslave its worshippers:

* raise the stakes by blaming it, not on that goddamned bitch Eve, but on the much more obvious culprit, her creator, and --

* turned it upside down, so that instead of its driving him on a fruitless quest for salvation it makes the very idea laughable.

One more thing we learn about Jago, as the monologue casts off bravado and quietly digs deeper into what makes him tick, he's wise to his smartypants Church's gamesmanship with regard to death. Oh, nearly all religions do it: Given their inability to do much about the here-and-now, they lay it off on the hereafter -- sometimes pleasingly, sometimes scarifyingly, and sometimes, if they dare try to get the balance right (it's the old carrot-and-stick principle), both. But Jago, as we see and especially hear in the final section of the "Credo," refuses to play this game. Or, rather, insists on playing it by more honest rules.


NOW LET'S HEAR THE COMPLETE "CREDO"S,
IN THE ORDER WE HEARD THE EXCERPTS

[A] Robert Merrill (1917-2004)
studio recording, 1963
New Symphony Orchestra of London, Edward Downes, cond. Decca, recorded September 1963 [audio link]

[B] Giuseppe Taddei (1916-2010)
studio recording, 1951 (not from the 1955 complete Otello)
RAI (Turin) Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Basile, cond. Cetra, recorded 1951 [audio link]

[C] Anselmo Colzani (1918-2006)
live performance, 1964
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Nello Santi, cond. Live performance, Feb. 15, 1964 [audio link]

[D] Robert Weede (1903-1972)
studio recording, 1953
Concert Arts Orchestra, Nicola Rescigno, cond. Capitol/Preiser, recorded 1953 [audio link]

[E] Leonard Warren (1911-1960)
live performance, 1946
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, George, cond. RCA, recorded Feb. 23, 1946 [audio link]

[F] Lawrence Tibbett (1896-1960)
studio recording, 1939
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Wilfred Pelletier, cond. RCA, studio recording, May 3, 1959 [audio link]


GET YER "CREDO" VALUE-ADDED BONUSES

Originally there was going to be a gallery of historical "Credo" recordings in this spot. I can't tell you how many hours I spent compiling them, but in the end I've exiled them to a separate "bonus" location, along with a curious coupling of performances featuring Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Jago. Partly the idea was to break up this run of Fischer-Dieskau idolatry I seem to have stumbled into, first with his recording of Wolfram in Wagner's Tannhäuser (the first one, mind you, the 1960 EMI one, not the later one for DG) and then with his c1960 recording with Jörg Demus of Schumann's "Widmung." In reality my feelings about him as a performer are wildly mixed.


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

#

Sunday Classics bonus: Some "Credo" value-addeds

This clip doesn't really add much value. It's just the other video "Credo" clip I found that was marginally less horrible than the rest. And, oh yes, it's got subtitles.


FOR AN EXPLANATION OF WHAT THIS MATERIAL IS
AND WHAT IT'S DOING HERE, SEE TODAY'S MAIN POST

As explained there, we've got two leftover orders of business: (1) a mostly uncommentated sequence of "Credo" recordings, and (2) a juxtaposition of two additional performances featuring Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Jago, first singing in German and then singing as if he were singing in German -- though you'll note that the two German-sung performances we hear in the "gallery," by Michael Bohnen and Heinrich Schlusnus, aren't like this at all.


A GALLERY OF "CREDO"S


Here's a vibrant 1908 recording by the outstanding baritone Antonio Magini-Coletti (1855-1912). You might also check out the great Pasquale Amato's 1911 recording.

The "Credo' has been a staple since the dawn of recordings, serving as a standard showpiece for baritones. I don't say that these are the "best" recordings. They're some that I happen to have (mostly in LPs that are hardly the last word technically) which I was able to lay hands on relatively quickly and which seem to me worth hearing, for a variety of reasons.

Eugenio Giraldoni will be known forever as the original Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, and he must have been formidable. (He did record a nice chunk of the Act II monologue, which we should probably hear sometime.) This was clearly a big, full, wide-ranging voice. Antonio Scotti had an enormous career (he sang at the Met from 1899 to 1933), and as a result is often remembered for singing that wasn't as strong as in his prime years, when he made his famous recordings with his frequent stage partner Enrico Caruso.

"Cannon-voiced" is the description that leaps to mind for Ruffo, for reasons that should be obvious from his "Credo," but it's far from an insensitive piece of singing. The thunderous Gino Bechi for obvious reasons recalled Ruffo. We've already heard him rage as Renato in Verdi's Masked Ball and Gérard in Giordano's Andrea Chénier; it's hardly surprising that he enjoys cutting loose in the "Credo."

The two Germans are both special singers. Most bass-baritones sort of fall between the bass and baritone ranges, but Michael Bohnen's voice had all the depth and fullness of a true bass and the ringing upper-range freedom of a great baritone. Heinrich Schlusnus will be familiar to Sunday Classics readers from our series of Tannhäuser posts. He sang a great deal of Verdi (usually, but not always, in German), but Jago seems to have disappeared from his repertory early on. At least this acoustical recording is the only "Credo" of his I have. (In fact, the only other Otello excerpt I have is the great "Si, pel ciel" duet with tenor Robert Hutt.)

Eugenio Giraldoni (1871-1924), recorded December 1905
[audio link]
Antonio Scotti (1866-1936), recorded March 9, 1906
[audio link]
Mario Sammarco (1868-1930), recorded 1908
[audio link]
Titta Ruffo (1877-1953), recorded Jan. 7, 1914
[audio link]
Michael Bohnen (1887-1965), in German, recorded 1916
[audio link]
Heinrich Schlusnus (1888-1952), in German, recorded 1921
[audio link]
Cesare Formichi (1883-1949), recorded c1927
[audio link]
Gino Bechi (1913-1993), recorded c1942
Milan Symphony Orchestra, Argeo Quadri, cond. EMI, recorded c1942 [audio link]


FINALLY, THE TROUBLING CASE OF
DIETRICH FISCHER-DIESKAU AND JAGO

The German-language performance is from a DG highlights ("Querschnitten," the Germans call them) LP with Wolfgang Windgassen as Otello and Teresa Stratas as Desdemona. The Italian-language complete performance of the opening scene of Act II is from a complete Otello conducted by Sir John Barbirolli (quite beautifully in this scene, I think), with James McCracken in the title role and Gwyneth Jones still in radiant voice as Desdemona -- an oddly frustrating recording, among whose frustrations there's perhaps none greater than Fischer-Dieskau's demented Jago.

VERDI: Otello: "Vanne" . . . "Credo in un Dio crudel" (in German)

[in German] Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Jago; Bavarian State Orchestra, Otto Gerdes, cond. DG, recorded c 1966 [audio link]

VERDI: Otello: Act II, Orchestral introduction; Jago, "Non ti crucciar" ("Do not fret") . . . "Vanne" ("Go then") . . . "Credo in un Dio crudel" ("I believe in a cruel God")

A ground-floor apartment in the castle. Through a window a large garden is seen. A balcony. JAGO on this side of the balcony, CASSIO on the garden side.

JAGO: Do not fret.
If you trust in me, you will soon enjoy again
the flighty favors of Mistress Bianca,
proud captain, with your hilt of gold
and figured baldric.
CASSIO: Do not flatter me . . .
JAGO: Attend to what I say.
You just know that Desdemona is
the leader of our leader,
he lives for her alone.
Beg that generous soul to intercede for you
and your pardon is sure.
CASSIO: But how shall I speak with her?
JAGO: 'Tis her custom to stroll in the shade
of those trees with my wife.
Wait for her there.
Now the way of salvation is open to you;
go then.
[CASSIO moves away. JAGO alone.]
JAGO [gazing after CASSIO]: Go then;
I see your end already.
Your evil genius drives you on,
and I am your evil genius.
And my drags me on, implacable God
in whom I believe.
[Moving away from the balcony, no longer looking at CASSIO, who disappears through the trees.]
I believe in a cruel God who has created me
in his image and whom, in hate, I call upon.
me like himself; cruel and vile he made me.
From some vile germ or base atom
was I born.
I am evil
because I am a man;
and I feel the primeval slime in me.
Yes! This is my creed!
I believe with a firm heart,
just as does the young widow in church,
that the evil I think and which from me proceeds
was decreed for me by fate.
I believe that the honest man is a mocking buffoon,
and in his face and in his heart,
everything in him is a lie:
tears, kisses, glances,
sacrifice and honor.
And I believe man to be
the sport of a wicked fate,
from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.
And after this derision comes Death.
And then? And then?
Death is nothingness.
Heaven is an old wives' tale.

-- translation by Gwyn Morris
(stage directions swiped from Andrew Porter)

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Jago; Piero de Palma (t), Cassio; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli, cond. EMI, recorded Oct.-Nov. 1968 [audio link]


RETURN TO THE MAIN POST

#